Tiger Woods at the 14th hole during the third round of the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club. / Tim Fuller, USA TODAY Sports

by Steve DiMeglio, USA TODAY Sports

by Steve DiMeglio, USA TODAY Sports

Bloggers blaring about illegal drops, tabloids screaming about his relationship with Lindsey Vonn, naysayers nagging about his drought in major championships. A nasty public spat with a pesky adversary that turned ugly with racial overtones cranked the volume. And now, even Mother Nature is chiming in with threats of disturbance during this week's U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club in suburban Philadelphia, where he's the overwhelming favorite.

Yet Tiger Woods remains calm amid the din. Irritated, yes. Annoyed, of course. But he deflects the racket just as he has since becoming one of the world's most visible athletes in 1997. He swats away any criticism of his swing and doubts about his game by pointing to his record - four wins this year, seven in his last 22 stroke-play events on the PGA Tour. That worst-ever 44 on the back nine that led to him matching his worst-ever score on U.S. soil, a 79 in the third round of the Memorial in his last event? It happens, Woods says.

Having rebuilt his game back to a dominant level and returned to his perch as the No. 1-ranked golfer in the world, Woods has enjoyed talking about his wins at Torrey Pines, Doral, Bay Hill and TPC Sawgrass this year far more than the noise. That would be the sound of anchoring, Vijay Singh and deer-antler spray, the mess at the Masters with the drop and non-disqualification and his row with Sergio Garcia and course etiquette and fried chicken, which Garcia thoughtlessly said he'd serve at dinner if Woods was a guest. And don't even go there with Woods and his alleged wild night with Vonn in the Boom Boom Room in New York last month.

But while the klieg lights have been intense this year, and the hefty weight of expectation immense, Woods' concentration is solely on the one remaining section to his comeback puzzle he started piecing together after his crash into a fire hydrant and subsequent marriage-ending, image-wrecking sex scandal in 2009:

A win in a major championship.

It's been five years since Woods won his 14th major, when he fought through pain from shredded ligaments and busted bones in his left leg to beat Rocco Mediate in a playoff in the 2008 U.S. Open. Injuries to his Achilles, knee and back since have forced him out of four majors. He's also contended in more than half (eight top-10s in last 15 majors) of the majors since 2008, including a tie for fourth in his last, the Masters.

"Ever since he turned pro he's been under the spotlight, but it has ramped up this year because people feel like No. 15 is very close," says Golf Channel analyst Frank Nobilo, who won 15 titles worldwide during his career. "Because of what he's gone through the last few years, 15 could be the most important major of his career. It would mean he's back on track. He's back on a winning clip again, but it's been five years since his last major."

Woods says he doesn't fret about his stalled pursuit of Jack Nicklaus' record 18 majors, nor is he shaken by his longest drought in the game's biggest tournaments.

"I'm not stressed because I know where I'm heading," says Woods, who, with a victory this week, would join Willie Anderson, Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan and Nicklaus as the only players to win the U.S. Open four times. "I'm comfortable going forward, comfortable with what is in the future. I'm more precise with my swing. I've been able to work on other parts of my game and make them strengths. It's all about trying to get better and I feel I am.

"And I've contended in majors. Just haven't gotten it done. But you have to keep putting yourself in position to win. If I do that enough times, the odds are better for me to win."

His four victories this season have not gone unnoticed by his colleagues. Rickie Fowler says Woods isn't missing many shots and making a ton of putts. Steve Stricker says Woods is in a better place mentally. Keegan Bradley says he's seeing the same dominant Woods he saw growing up. And Brandt Snedeker says Woods is hitting every shot solidly.

"People ask what's wrong with Tiger all the time. Nothing is wrong with Tiger," Davis Love III says. "As long as he plays, he wins.

"I think we expect too much as fans out of Tiger, like we expected too much out of Michael Jordan. Like Michael should make every jump shot at the end of the game or something is wrong. Because they do it so many times, they raise people's expectations. And I don't think we give him enough credit for the level of consistency he's had."

Woods, who says he "loves grind, the fight, the challenge, of a U.S. Open," is healthy. He's keen to the discipline needed to win a U.S. Open, likes how you need to know where to miss with your bad shots, loves how turning bogeys into pars and doubles into bogeys is as important as making birdies.

And the short, tight East Course could play right into his hands.

"Anytime you can give Tiger a course that he doesn't need to use his driver, I think is to his advantage," NBC analyst and U.S. Open champion Johnny Miller says. "I think when he won The Players Championship is very similar to what he's going to do at Merion. He just sort of gets it off the tee with less than a driver, and his iron game is terrific and the rest of his game is terrific.

"Really the only weakness for Tiger is when he has to hit the driver, and if he doesn't have to hit the driver, I think he's tough to beat."

On the flip side, Woods played Merion for the first time three weeks ago and he's won just one U.S. Open in 10 years. Plus, with each passing major he doesn't win, the pressure builds - from within and from outside the ropes.

"He's got to be very careful not to be trying too hard to win the championship right away early in the week versus just going out and playing golf and letting it happen," two-time U.S. Open winner Andy North says.

If Woods were to win this week, North says, the "floodgates might open" and he could go on another major haul again.

This week, Paul Azinger says, we might know what will happen very early.

"What to look for out of Tiger Woods is how he is emotionally early on," says Azinger, the 1993 PGA Championship winner and ESPN analyst. "When he's winning and hitting it poorly, you know, finishing last in fairways hit at Bay Hill, he has this air of confidence and this air of calm and patience; when he knows he doesn't have it, he's kicking clubs around and you can read his lips.

"So I would look early on, and that comes from within, the pressure from within. So I would look early on to see if he's frustrated early and he's reacting, or he's frustrated early and there's no reaction."

Merion awaits - and Woods is ready to attack with the same exuberance and cutthroat strategy he showed as a kid.

"It's still about winning the event. That's how I played as a junior, all the way through to now, and that's just to try to kick everyone's butt," Woods says. "That to me is the rush. That's the fun. That's the thrill.

"And it's been nice to be a part of the mix for 17 years now out here and be a part of a lot of great duels and a lot of great battles. And that to me is why I prepare, why I lift all those weights and put myself through all that is to be in those types of positions. It's fun."